A hot day at Rishikesh

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Today, after a refreshing early morning walk at a park near our guesthouse and a lovely breakfast of toast and eggs, we set off for Rishikesh, 22 km away. The temperature at 10 a.m. was a blazing 40 degrees celsius... and during the day went up to around 45 degrees celsius... so sunscreen and caps
really came in good use!! The Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Limited (GMVNL) had a tourist help centre near the Lakshman Jhula.. After asking a few questions we came to know that there is a provision for rafting a few kilometres down the road... and at a place called Kaudiwala some distance
away... We parked our car near the tourist center and hailed one of those famous blue autos to take us to the Lakshman Jhula, a kilometre away.. The jhula (bridge)was built somewhere in the 1900's by the British and connects one part of Rishikesh town to the other... To reach the bridge one
has to walk through a bazaar that sells pretty much everything, the same as in Haridwar. A local man offered to be our guide till the bridge. He took us first to a temple of Goddess Parvati that was built in the form of steps, from the bank of the river upwards till the road. We offered a puja and got
a fake Rudraksh necklace in return.. one can't expect to get a real rudraksh necklace at a temple like that for only a sum of Rs.10.. Next the guide took us through a narrow gully to a shop which specializes in selling precious and semi-precious stones and severeal other holy
items.. The owner happened to be a Bengali ( a good thing and a bad thing for our family who happened to be bengali's as well) and explained a whole lot of stuff about rudraksh and other precious stones. He told us that one has to know the difference between a real rudraksh and a fake one.
A real rudraksh sinks in water and spins either clockwise or anti-clockwise when placed between two copper coins. Whereas, a fake rudraksh floats in water and doesn't spin when placed between two copper coins. He also showed us this spatik necklace and navratna (meaning nine stones)
necklace and also showed us the way to test it. When two spatik beads are hit together, a yellow spark is seen indicating it is real. To test if either of the stones in a navratna necklace is real, (e.g. an amethyst) clash it with another bead on the same necklace and a spark is seen which is the colour of the
stone. (purple in this case).. The bengali man, after a lot of explaining made us buy a spatik necklace in which each bead has 27 cuts to radiate the sun's energy in 27 different angles all over your body.. I don't know if it really works but i would love to wear the necklace for sake of fashion..
Anways, after this shop, our guide led us the Lakshman Jhula and just disappeared! He probably went back to the shop to collect his commission from the Bengali man.. who knows!!! The walk from one side of town to the other was beautiful!! From the bridge, one can get blown away by the beauty
of the Ganga and by the strong winds that keep blowing all the time! We had bought a packet of atta balls (called 'atta goli' in hindi) to feed the fish which are waiting to be fed! If one drops one of these balls, a hundred fishes can be seen coming to the surface trying to get the ball.. An amazing
sight!! The ganga was beautiful but the terrible heat was unbearable.. We had to go all the way to the end of the town to a restaurant called the 'Chotiwala'.. since the walk would be long we decided to go by jeep at a very cheap rate (only Rs. 5 per head!).. The Chotiwala restaurant had a
fat painted brahmin and a long stiff choti at the top of his head, sitting at the entrance of the huge restaurant ringing a bell to invited customers! Every tourist who visits Rishikesh has to make it a point to the eat at the Chotiwala restaurant.. The food may not be something truly exceptional,
but the the main attraction is the brahmin at the entrance of the shop.. a little funny maybe but he is the main reason tourists come to eat here.. The food is vegetarian, as it is in the whole of uttrakhand. After a lunch of bengali thali ( that wasn't bengali at all!! ) we decided to head back to the main town by walking on the much longer Ram Jhula.. The heat was unbearable so we had to walk back quickly to the car. We drove back to our guesthouse to get a nice long rest.. In the evening we walked about in the BHEL township as we weren't in the mood to get the car out..
After a delicious dinner we finally hit the bed!!

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Photos

Calm river ganga
We took this picture on our way to Rishikesh, at 9 in the morning.. One can see how beautiful and calm the river ganga is.. but very deep!

Lord Shiva
We saw this statue of Lord Shiva on the way to Rishikesh... The statue can also be seen from Har-ki-pauri.

Receiving Ganga
This is a statue showing Lord Shiva receiving Ganga into his matted locks to reduce the impact of her descent. This statue was at a temple of goddess parvati in Rishikesh.

The Lakshman Jhula
The picture of the lakshman jhula taken from the main rishikesh town.. One can see how long it is..

River Ganga
This picture has been taken from the Lakshman Jhula. One can see how calm it is, but there is a strong current and the river is extremely deep.. whew!!

The Chotiwala
That's the chotiwala at Rishikesh. He's ringing a bell to invite tourists into the restaurant.. oh my god! what a tiring job!!

Ram Jhula
We took this picture on our way back to the main Rishikesh town.. You can see that the Ram Jhula is much longer than the Lakshman Jhula.. and was built a few years after it..